The year-end roll calls continue with lists of all the fiction and nonfiction for adults translated from Chinese into English in 2025. Make sure to open the hidden menus to see a list of shorter pieces published online and in journals this year (many of which can be read for free!), as well as the licensed internet fiction that received new volumes in print.

Just like yesterday: If you notice a publication missing, please do let us know so we can add it. And if you are one of the authors or translators listed below but don't yet have a Paper Republic profile page, send us an email. We're always looking to add new profiles so that our translation database stays as complete and up-to-date as possible.

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Fiction Books

It was another strong year for Chinese fiction translated into English: thirty books, holding approximately steady from last year. Even better, we’re gradually inching toward gender parity, although there’s still a ways to go (12 out of 27 single-author books were written by women).

Most of all, I see positive signs that Chinese fiction is increasingly gaining attention in the Anglophone literary mainstream. More novels than ever received widespread media attention, from Jia Pingwa (Old Kiln, translated by Christopher Payne, James Trapp and Olivia Milburn) to Shuang Xuetao (Hunter, translated by Jeremy Tiang) to Hon Lai Chu (Mending Bodies, translated by Jacqueline Leung). And with Zhang Yueran’s Women, Seated (translated by Jeremy Tiang) kicking off a new group of high-profile Sinophone fiction releases from Riverhead Books, there’s reason for optimism going into 2026.—Andrew Rule

Internet Novels

Translated internet novels continue to surpass all other publication categories in terms of the sheer number of books released, with new print volumes of at least 37 different novels hitting the shelves in 2025—not to mention ebooks and manhua, let alone online serialized translations. Danmei (boy’s love) continues to dominate the market, as it has for four years now, but we also saw new releases of two of the first translated internet novels ever to get an English print run: The Beauty’s Blade: Mei Ren Jian by Feng Ren Zuo Shu (baihe, or girl’s love) and Lord of Mysteries by Cuttlefish Who Loves Diving (fantasy/horror).

These books are among the most successful Chinese-to-English translated books ever. At the same time, there are reports of poor editing practices at major danmei publishers like Seven Seas, including making major alterations to translations without the translator’s consent. And with the online serialization giant Webnovel’s recent embrace of machine translation, and many print runs of internet novels not even naming their translators at all, it seems clear that the industry does not value the labor of translation like it should. That’s a disservice to translators, readers, and the books themselves.

For a list of danmei novels released this year, see this meticulous resource maintained by blackbirdsye: https://licenseddanmei.carrd.co/#releasedates.—Andrew Rule

Nonfiction Books

In a characteristically lean year for translated nonfiction, academic presses pulled most of the weight. Even as memoirs about motherhood and female labor garnered wide audiences in the Chinese-speaking world, the translated offerings are disturbingly gender-skewed, with only two of nine titles by women. I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan (translated by Jack Hargreaves) was the book that received the widest attention from popular readers this year, offering a Chinese perspective to nonfiction readers who typically have to rely on English-original books to learn about China.—Andrew Rule